Author: Linda Fairstein Title: Entombed Genre: thriller
Setting counts for a lot in murder mysteries, enough so that several authors write setting-driven novels. Think of Nevada Barr, whose Anna Pigeon mystery series features a new national park in every installment; or Margaret Truman, who places each new book in her series at a different DC landmark. When one-time New York City prosecutor Linda Fairstein set 2003's The Bone Vault in the Museum of Modern Art, it marked a departure from the typically character-driven episodes of the Alex Cooper series. The change apparently resonated with Fairstein or her fan base, so for the setting of 2005's book in the series she chose a different cultural icon: the New York Botanical Garden, 250 acres in the midst of the Bronx. Fordham Avenue and the Bronx are not Cooper's usual stomping grounds, far (by her standards, anyway) from her comfort zone in the midst of Manhattan. More to the point, it's covered with living greenery and rocks instead of garden salads and newsstands. So, can Cooper survive roughing it in "the sticks" for just a wee bit? We'll see...
Bodies are turning up everywhere Alex Cooper goes these days, or so it seems. A visit to a "demolition party" at the local law school nets Coop (and her sidekick, homicide cop Mike Chapman) the skeleton of a young woman who'd been buried alive. The victim had been walled up with bricks over an alcove, very like the victim in Edgar Allan Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado." On an odd historical note, the woman's final resting place is in a building where that author himself once dwelt. Old Ed didn't kill her, though: forensic evidence indicates that the body had only been in place for twenty-five years instead of 200. There are, however, plenty of other connections to Poe strung though the case.
Most of the connections funnel through a scholarly society of Poe fans - a society rumored to require a Poe-influenced murder as an initiation rite. Presided over by a lugubrious librarian, the society operates out of a tiny cottage on the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden, a cottage where Poe once lived with his young (and I do mean young) bride. The head Poe fan might make a likely suspect if he weren't confined to a wheelchair - otherwise the society seems to be off the hook. Or are they? A properly "Poe-etic" tale gradually unfolds; a macabre tale rife with betrayal and revenge. Two modern murders were clearly committed to protect the unknown killer of a generation ago, and since one was meant to copy the MO of a serial rapist, Cooper (natch) gets involved.
Readers of the series can take it from there, probably blindfolded. Cooper and Chapman will bet several times on the Final Jeopardy question (which will be about military history 75% of the time). Cooper will mentally tag major suspect X as her favorite for killer, only to learn to her dismay that she overlooked persistent minor character Y. Cooper will find herself trapped alone with the killer. Cooper will combine her meager physical skills and her prodigious intellect with a modicum of luck to escape. And we're done, and not a moment too soon.
New York Botanical Gardens Conservatory
Seven books into the Alex Cooper series, Linda Fairstein might be burning out, with plots of diminishing interest and increasing similarity. Perhaps she needs to slow down a bit...
For those of us on the outside looking in, one of the biggest problems with mystery series is the apparent difficulty of keeping the characters and plots fresh. In an effort to keep her characters interesting, Fairstein rotates through the three principals (Cooper, Chapman, Wallace) bestowing upon each a life crisis more or less in turn - for this episode it's the death of Chapman's girlfriend. That's not enough to keep them interesting, however: the interaction of blue-collar chauvinist Chapman and society-girl Cooper simply gets staler and more indistinguishable with each new episode. One wonders when Cooper is simply going to tire of his fifties attitudes and knock him upside the head with her Prada bag.
A second weakness of the Cooper series is that the plots have devolved into something more or less by the numbers, with Cooper trapped alone with the killer - oh! what a surprise! - in the penultimate reel after two or three red herrings have been dragged across her path. And last, but not least, Cooper's mere involvement in these cases becomes more implausible with each new entry. She's a lawyer - the ADA for Sex Crimes - what on earth is she doing investigating murders? Give us a break!
Of course there are good points to the Cooper series. In this instance, Fairstein's research into Edgar Allan Poe's feet of clay sparkles, from the intimation that Eddie might have had a plagiaristic streak to rumors that he might actually have committed some of the horrific deeds featured in his fiction. That his "ratiocination" marked the invention of the detective novel came as pleasant news to me.
Drawing on her substantial background as an expert on sex crimes and domestic violence, Fairstein also inserts into each installment tough and gritty scenes with rape victims or sexual predators. This time out there's a well-drawn secondary plot, which involves a serial rapist who reappears after several years' absence. A "ripped from the headlines" tale of John Doe warrants for the DNA of the unknown rapist moves this segment along nicely. Combine this subplot with a few short scenes - very likely based on real-life experience - of people caught in "the system," and we can see whence the power of the original Cooper books was derived. It's a pity, however, that she's gotten on that new-book-every-year treadmill and must stretch further and further from reality to make her case